Father Brodzeller was a pastor in any setting in which he found himself. He ministered well to people in need in both hospitals and parishes. He also ministered well to the Jesuits with whom he lived.

In Memoriam: Fr. Robert E. Brodzeller, SJ

October 25, 2018 — Let us pray in thanksgiving for the life of Fr. Robert E. Brodzeller, SJ, who was called to eternal life on October 24, 2018. Father Brodzeller died at St. Camillus Jesuit Community, in Wauwatosa, Wis. He was eighty-eight years old, a Jesuit for sixty-eight years, and a priest for fifty-five years.

Born in Lomira, Wisconsin on June 6, 1930, Fr. Brodzeller attended grade school in Lomira and Campion High School in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. After two years at Marquette University, he entered the Society at St. Stanislaus Seminary, Florissant, Missouri on August 17, 1950. He completed the usual Jesuit course of studies at St. Stanislaus, Saint Louis University, and Saint Mary's College. He did regency at Red Cloud Indian School in Pine Ridge, SD. He was ordained at Gesu Church in Milwaukee on June 11, 1963. A good linguist, Fr. Brodzeller made tertianship in Austria. He pronounced his final vows on September 13, 1980, at Ss. Peter and Paul Church in Mankato, Minn.

He taught French at Campion High School from 1965 to 1972. Apart from one year as a retreat director at Emmaus in Des Moines, Iowa, for the next thirty-five years he ministered as a hospital chaplain and a parish priest in either Omaha or Mankato. In 2006, declining health, especially impaired hearing, led to his assignment to the St. Camillus Jesuit Community, where he functioned as an unusually active member of the community until his death.

Father Brodzeller was a pastor in any setting in which he found himself. He ministered well to people in need in both hospitals and parishes. He also ministered well to the Jesuits with whom he lived. And his ministry was often of a hands-on, practical nature—stocking the fridge, setting up in the chapel, supplying vine-ripened tomatoes from his St. Camillus garden.

August 21, 2018 – As we reckon with the Grand Jury report on sexual abuse by priests in Pennsylvania and the failures of bishops to protect the children entrusted to their care, our hearts and prayers—first and foremost—are with the victim-survivors.

January 17, 2019 — Let us pray in thanksgiving for the life of Fr. Eugene F. Merz, SJ, who was called to eternal life on January 16, 2019, around 5:30 a.m. Gene died at Zilber Hospice in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. He was eighty-seven years old, a Jesuit for seventy years, and a priest for fifty-seven years.

January 16, 2019 — It was a homecoming fifty years in the making. In 2016, Fr. Casey Bukala, SJ, moved to the Colombiere Center near Detroit, where elder Jesuits live in community, receive the healthcare they need, and pray for the Church and the Society. It was not Fr. Bukala’s first time at Colombiere, however.

January 9, 2019 — Let us pray in thanksgiving for the life of Fr. John “Jack” R. Crocker, SJ, who died on Tuesday, January 8, 2019, at Colombiere Center in Clarkston, Michigan. He was 88 years old. May he rest in peace.